Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Patriarch Peter Penner (1816-1884)

 

Anecdote from Blumenort, by Royden Loewen, 2nd edition, p. 196-7

PETER PENNER HAD TWO LIVES AND FIVE WIVES

While still living in the Molotschna Colony and when he was only 13, Peter Penner fell from a horse and twisted his neck. He lay so still that his family and the neighbors considered him dead. Funeral preparations were made, the body was washed and laid out on a table. Relatives gathered around the table to sing some hymns. When they left, one of the relatives noticed that young Peter's head wasn't facing straight up, so he returned to straighten it. As he did so, Peter opened his eyes and it was discovered that he was still alive. How surprised and joyous relatives were one can only assume. Afterwards it was theorized that Peter's neck had twisted so that he was paralyzed.

Later on, this Peter was to outlive four wives and be the father of 25 children. The story is told by John D. Penner, a great-grandson, that Peter Penner in his old age insisted that any problems he had with his fifth wife were surely not his fault because he had learned to live with four previous wives.

 

Anecdote from Blumenort, by Royden Loewen, 2nd edition, p. 289

Peter Penner is the patriarch of all Kleine Gemeinde and Holdeman Penners. In Russia he lived in Rosenfeld, Borosenko. After moving to Manitoba, he settled down at the west end of the Blumenort village to become a leading farmer there. By the time he died he had built a large house and three barns, and broken 54 acres. He was also the second man in the village to own a portable steam engine. He is remembered as a talkative person, capable of quick decisions. He died in 1884, after having been sick in bed for four weeks. Most of his descendants live in Blumenort, Greenland, and Steinbach. His second wife, Katherina, was the daughter of Abram Rempel; his fourth wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Cornelius F. Friesen. His fifth wife was a Mrs. Heinrich Friesen who had come to Canada in 1876 and to Manitoba in 1877, where she settled at Hochstadt. In 1881, when she married Peter Penner, she brought her family to Blumenort. In 1891 she married Rev. Peter Baerg. She is buried in Blumenort.

 

Description of Peter Penner’s homestead quarter from an excerpt of an 1892 application for a patent, from Blumenort, by Royden Loewen, 2nd edition, p. 72

We, Abraham Penner and Cornelius Penner, both of the Village of Blumenort in the County of LaVerendrye in the Province of Manitoba, farmers,

do solemnly declare that our father, Peter Penner, who died at his home in the Village of Blumenort … as a farmer on the 27th day of April A.D. 1884, was the owner of the N.E. 1/4 of Section 33-7-6E …

2nd - that our deceased father had fulfilled all the settlement duties which the government required in the aforesaid quarter section of land before his death.

3rd - that the settlement duties which he had done are as follows: He built a frame dwelling house 23x46 with shingle roof in the year A.D. 1875; the stable, also a frame building, 28x48 feet with hay roof built in the same year A.D. 1875; another frame stable, 14x28 feet [with a] shingle roof has been built in the year 1882; a pig stable built of logs 14x16 feet [with a] shingle roof in the year A.D. 1879.

4th - that all the cultivating for the aforesaid land is in the plan of the Village of Blumenort and cultivated in the years A.D. 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878; by the year 1878 he had 30 acres under crop and 10 acres in addition broke [sic]; the total cultivation of the said quarter was 40 acres, all outside the cultivating for his own homestead.

 

Anecdotes from the works of Delbert Plett

·   Peter Penner did not leave Borosenko with the first Kleine Gemeinde emigration group to Canada because he and Peter W. Toews had been given the responsibility of completing the final legal documents regarding property transfers. The two men were also to receive and bring with them thee final payment of the purchase monies (Storm and Triumph, 327).

 

·   John I. Penner has preserved two documents pertaining to the settlement of the estates of the first two wives of his grandfather Peter Penner (1816-1884). Peter Penner was a member of the Kleine Gemeinde who originally farmed in the Molotschna village of Margenau. During the 1860’s he moved to the Kleine Gemeinde village of Rosenfeld in Borosenko where he farmed until 1874. He then emigrated to Manitoba where he settled in the village of Blumenort, five miles north of Steinbach….The first wife of Peter Penner (1816-1884) was Margaretha Harms, a daughter of Johan Harms, who apparently owned village farm number 12 in Blumstein. Margaretha harms was born in 1818 and died on December 18, 1846. The following document sets out the procedure which was followed in a situation such as this:

Settlement of Inheritance

   “The settlement of the estate of Margaretha Penner, nee Harms, who died in Margenau as a married woman on December 18, 1846, was completed on January 4, 1847. The division of the estate was made between the surviving widower Peter Penner, and the four children which are the issue of his first marriage, namely; Peter age 7, Katharina age 6, Margaretha age 2, and Johan 1/4 years of age. This division was made in the presence of the duly appointed guardians, Peter Harms and Franz Kroeker, both from here; and the Schulzenamt from here; and also in the presence of the Waisen vorsteher Friesen from the Friedensdorf…

The foregoing indicates that the young 34 year old Peter Penner has not yet made a great deal of financial progress. The reader should bear in mind that Penner was relatively fortunate as by 1846 only one-third of the Molotschna Mennonite families were landowners at all. It might also be noted that the guardians both appear to be Kleine Gemeinde men. Harms, no doubt, was the brother to the deceased Margaretha Penner, while Franz Kroeker was probably the father of Jakob M. Kroeker, who later served as the first Aeltester of the Scratching River Kleine Gemeinde in Manitoba.
However, Peter Penner (1816-1884) was known as a man who was able to make quick decisions and so we find that on January 26, 1847, he married Katharina Rempel (1828-1856). From an economic point of view this was a wise choice, for she was the daughter of Abraham Rempel, of Margenau, who was known to have been a very prosperous Kleine Gemeinde farmer. From the following document, it is certainly evident that Peter Penner had made substantial financial progress in the years after his second marriage. Unfortunately his second wife, Katharina Rempel, also died as a young woman leaving Penner as a widower wife five more young children. Again a Settlement of Inheritance was made on behalf of the infant beneficiaries. This document provides as follows:

Settlement of Inheritance

   “The settlement of the estate of the wife of Peter Penner, born Katharina Rempel, who died in Margenau, on July 4, 1856. This settlement of the estate was entered into and completed in the first day of August of this year between the surviving widower Penner and the infant children which are the issue of his second marriage, namely; Abraham 9 years, Martin 7 years, Aron 4 years, Cornelius 2 years, and Heinrich 1/2 years of age. Also party to this settlement were the duly appointed guardians of the infants, Martin Rempel, of Margenau, and Dirk Isaac, of Paulsheim, and the Schulzenamt from here as well as the Waisenamt from Paulsheim….

It can be seen that Peter Penner (1816-1884) has made good financial progress in a matter of some ten years. That this settlement was made only a little more than three weeks after the death of his second wife is explained by the fact that on August 19, 1856, Peter Penner married for the third time to Elizabeth Harder (1833-1870). It is noteworthy that the father-in-law Abraham Rempel must have ahd a good regard for his one-time son-in-law for when he passed away in Blumenort, Manitoba in 1878 he bequeathed a quarter section (NE33-7-6E) of land to Peter Penner as an inheritance. It is also noted that the guardian Martin Rempel would apparently be the brother to the deceased Katharina Rempel. The other guardian, Dirk Isaak, remains unidentified (The Golden Years, 116-118).

 

·   The Charity Of The Pioneer Gemeinde … In the same year (1876) Blumenort farmer Peter Penner (1816-1884) also extended a loan to the Gemeinde for $80.00.
The journal sheet for Peter Penner also shows and interesting series of advances paid to Penner from the Gemeinde treasury. This included some $40.00 paid to Penner over the years for various articles of clothing and upkeep for Margaretha Harder who was living with the Penner family in Blumenort. It seems that Margaretha was a sister-in-law to Penner who had been cheated and robbed of her sizeable inheritance by her brother who remained in Russia. Later, when this brother had come to a premature end under mysterious circumstances, this inheritance was eventually forwarded to Margaretha Harder. In fairness to Margaretha Harder it must also be noted that she left her quarter section of land in the Blumenort village plan to the Penner family in 1883. This demonstrates a caring and loving Gemeinde which was concerned that individuals such as Margaretha Harder who were otherwise completely alone and destitute would not be left without a home and shelter no matter how serious and bleak the situation might appear to be (The Golden Years, 350-351).

 

·  Family No. 11 Peter (Peter) Penner from Rosenfeld

Name                   Birthdate      Baptized      Married      Died

Peter Penner           Feb 13, 1816   May, 1835     Feb 4, 1871  Apr 28, 1884
Wife Elizabeth Friesen Oct 29, 1841   May 15, 1860  Feb 4, 1871  Feb 23, 1881

Comments: Left for America on June 18, 1874. Manitoba, Blumenort. Children listed are: Anna, born Dec 7, 1871; Helena born Feb 5, and died Aug 30, 1874; Justina, born Feb 1, 1874, and died Nov 14, 1874; Klaas, born Nov 12, 1875; Helena, born Mar 29, 1877 and Jacob, born Sep 26, 1879. Children listed from a previous marriage are: Aron, born Mar 30, 1852 and baptized Oct 24, 1875, and married on Jan 1, 1875; Isaac, born Jan 28, 1860; Heinrich, born Nov 17, 1866; Elisabeth, born Feb 28, 1865; Maria, born Mar 4, 1869. In 1896 Isaac (born 1860) is living in Greenland.

Margaretha Harder      1820                                      Oct 26, 1896

Comments: Margaretha Harder was the daughter of Isaac Harder who died in Rosenfeld on September 26, 1870. Margaretha Harder died in Gruenfeld, Manitoba on October 26, 1896, at the age of 76 years. As she was weak, both physically and spiritually, she had remained single. Important Note: She was entitled to an inheritance with respect to which she was taken advantage of by her siblings. One of her brothers (by the name of Peter) did not release her inheritance to her at the time of the immigration to America. When her brother was found murdered on or by a railway, the not insignificant inheritance came to her here in Manitoba. (Profile, 11)

 

·   ‘During the night of Friday, January 11, 1874, the Penners in Rosenfeld held their auction sale: “They sold livestock and many articles from three farms.”’ (Saints and Sinners, 322)

 

·   Peter Penner (1816-84), born in Ohrloff was a successful Vollwirt in Margenau (Saints and Sinners, 171).

 

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